Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Pope Francis in the U.S.

Pope Francis arrived in Washington, D.C. yesterday for his first visit to the United States.

Much has been written in the lead-up to this historic visit and I'm sure much more will be written in the days to come. My own thoughts on the pope's visit aren't that profound, in large part because I have no real enthusiasm for the whole feudal monarchical papal system – a system of authority and governance totally at odds with the model of leadership embodied by Jesus. Quite frankly, I'd rather expend time and energy on evolving the Catholic community beyond both papalism and its "diseased system" of clericalism.

The purpose of this post, however, isn't to belabor this point. After all, a whole Wild Reed series, "Progressive Perspectives on the Papacy" is devoted to exploring the pitfalls of and alternatives to papalism. Rather, I share today some perspectives (along with a number of relevant links) that I find both interesting and helpful in the midst of the media hoopla surrounding the Bishop of Rome's U.S. visit.

A glimmer of hope

I start with the perspective of E.J. Dionne Jr., shared in his recent Washington Post op-ed. I appreciate how Dionne reminds us of how in a number of significant ways, Francis is more radical than many "liberals." It's important to note that the word "radical" is being used here in its deepest and truest sense. All too often "radical" is erroneously equated with extremism of one kind or another. Yet that’s not what it means. It actually means to go to the root, to recognize and address the underlying essence of a given reality, along with the deep-seated issues, questions and/or problems associated with it. Pope Francis does this with regards to economic and environmental issues. He is yet to do it, however, with regards to issues of gender and sexuality. This discrepancy is problematic for many people, and stems from the fact that the Vatican employs two conflicting worldviews when dealing with different areas of human inquiry and experience.

Yet Dionne finds hope in many of the pope's actions, which he argues speak louder than his words, words often reflective of and thus limited by the impoverished and dysfunctional doctrines of the "official" church. By and large, the pope's actions tend to favor human experience over doctrine, a favoring which in turn has, says Dionne, "radically reordered the priorities of the church." At the core of this development is the pope's focus on human encounter and experience, and in this I see an ever-so-slight glimmer of hope for gay people and their loved ones. One reason it's a slight glimmer is because of the ongoing treatment of women in the church. They continue to be left out of the pope's "revolution" of encounter. It's a scandalous and demoralizing situation that doesn't bode well for LGBT people.

Despite this (or perhaps because he's unmindful of it), Dionne writes that: "It’s hard to see how progressives don’t come out ahead [with Francis]. He is not fighting culture wars. He is fighting against them. This, in part, is what accounts for his broad popularity among former Catholics, Americans of other faiths and even secularists and atheists."

Continues Dionne:

But seeing Francis only as a player in our political fights is misleading. To begin with, he is — both spiritually and politically — far more radical than most Americans, including most liberals.

While he has been quite specific on some political questions (the climate and immigration especially), what characterizes his mission is an effort to turn our notions of who counts and who has the strongest claim on our attention upside down.

. . . In a moving New York Times piece about one of the pope’s planned stops in New York, columnist Jim Dwyer described the invitation list: “carwashers . . . Hudson Valley farmworkers, day-laborers, immigrant mothers, and teenagers and children who have crossed the border without their parents.” In Philadelphia, Francis will visit the city’s largest jail. In Washington, he will bless the needy who get help from Catholic Charities. His ministry will be right out of what the Catholic Mass says of Jesus: “To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, and to those in sorrow joy.”

Francis will be calling everyone (liberals no less than others) out of complacency.

A gay Catholic invitation

The second perspective I share today is that of Jeff Vomund (left), a member of Dignity/Washington. Vomund has an incredibly well-written and inspiring commentary in the September 20, 2015 issue of The Washington Post. To date, it's the best "gay Catholic" commentary I've read in relation to the pope's visit to the U.S..

In its recognition and understanding of the lived experiences of gay people, Vomund's perspective stands in stark contrast to that of Ron Belgau, the only gay person officially sanctioned to appear (along with his mother) at the upcoming World Meeting of Families. Belgau, a self-described celibate gay man, sees "chaste and holy intimacy as a model for Christ-centered spiritual friendship" between gay people. Echoing the stance of the Vatican, Belgau maintains that it is type of friendship that is "corrupted" by "homosexual activity," which is a reductive and demeaning term for the rich and complex reality of sexual encounters and/or relationships between people of the same gender. In contrast to Belgau's limited perspective, Vomund's words reflect what I and many other Catholics consider to be a wise, spacious, and holy understanding of homosexuality.

Pope Francis, welcome to Washington! Like the rest of the Catholic world and people of good faith everywhere, we have felt challenged to find God in all people by your focus on the poor and the outcast. We watched you wash the feet of women and non-Christians and were inspired to be more inclusive. We read your words on the moral imperatives caused by our climate crisis and were challenged to change our relationship to the Earth. But never have we been more energized by your words than when, on the first foreign trip of your papacy, you said this to a reporter who asked you about gay priests: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?”

As an organization that provides a spiritual home to LGBTQ Catholics, Dignity/Washington works for respect and justice for people of all sexual orientations, genders and gender identities in the Catholic Church. We know what it’s like to feel judged. For being honest about our sexuality. For wanting to live happy and open lives with families and friends. And, indeed, for wanting to be who we are — LGBTQ and Roman Catholic.

We also love our church. We love gathering as a community around the altar for the Eucharist. We love the scriptures and the liturgy and the faith tradition that has shaped our lives. Although we as an organization have been exiled from Catholic buildings and rejected by Catholic leaders because we want to live our sexuality openly and without apology, we are still Catholic, and we still look to you for leadership.

That is why we are so grateful for your upcoming presence in our city. We await your arrival with hope and expectation. And we invite you, Holy Father, in the words of Jesus to his first disciples, to “come and see.”

So often when the church has made pronouncements about homosexuality and the LGBTQ community, it has done so from a distance. Despite the high percentage of gay clergy in the Catholic Church — or perhaps because of it — Vatican and hierarchical statements about homosexuality and LGBTQ people have felt like an intellectual exercise in natural law and interpretations of scriptural text, not statements that speak to the great commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. “Intrinsically disordered,” as the church refers to homosexual acts, may be a legitimate philosophical category, but it is not a label to put on brothers and sisters.

We are, like you and all church leaders, human beings who fall in love, have to learn how to forgive and want to grow old surrounded by friends and family. It is not the church’s judgment about us that has hurt so much, but rather our being judged without being known. For if church leaders knew us, they would also know the love that surrounds us. They would know couples who have cared for each other in sickness and in health — indeed not parting until death. They would see the power of understanding, especially the understanding of parents and children, as we have struggled with our families to make sense of who we are. They would know the joy and laughter that come from friendship and the powerful bond that comes, at times, from feeling outcast together. For any who know us would know that what church teaching has labeled “disordered” is actually a gift that gives order to our love and to our lives. From the distance of philosophical theology, that might seem impossible. But up close I promise one cannot fail to see it.

And so, we invite you, Holy Father, as well as Cardinal Donald Wuerl, our own archbishop, and all of the bishops and priests in whose dioceses and parishes we live, to “come and see.” Get to know the strength of love that survives despite ridicule and cultural rejection. Experience firsthand couples who have been together for decades praying and seeking to do God’s will. See us in our need for forgiveness, but also in the sharing of our gifts. We are confident that, like those who experienced Jesus firsthand, you would recognize as did the apostle John in his first Letter, “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”

We might disagree about the definition of a civil or a sacramental marriage. We might not see eye to eye on the purpose of sexual activity in a same-sex relationship. But we can begin by simply getting to know the love that God has for each of us. We could share that love with you, and you with us — or any other church leader who would be willing to “come and see.” We believe that once you got to see and know our love, it would no longer make sense to call it “disordered” or to fire people who work for and serve the church while sharing that love. We believe that once you came to share in our love for one another, labeling it as a “cross” we had to bear, or treating it as less deserving of government protection, would make no more sense to you than it does to us.

Holy Father, “come and see” for yourself how God is made flesh in our liturgies and in our loves, as in any other Catholic community, and you will not have to ask: “Who am I to judge?” Because, again echoing John, you will speak of “what we have seen with our eyes . . . and touched with our hands” and proclaim “the eternal life . . . that was . . . made visible to us” so that we might “have fellowship” together and “our joy may be complete.”

5 comments:

I am happy that this Pope is finally speaking out about dialogue and social justice and immigrants and the poor. etc., while also continuing to encourage progress on other important issues. But I am pissed as hell at those demonizing him for not being perfect.

I think you can applaud some of the Pope's messages and not others. His major theme of "We Can Do Better" certainly resonates with me, and I'm sure with most Americans. I am no longer Catholic. I am a feminist, and have been involved in the gay rights movement for 20 years. Despite that, I am willing to hear the Pope's positive messages and be touched by his obviously good heart.

I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed simply invites people to observe and reflect upon one man’s progressive, gay, Catholic perspective on faith, sexuality, politics, and culture.

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